Office Building, Grosser Burstah

gmp has completed an office building at a prime location in Hamburg’s historic city center. The building forms the terminus of an axis visible from the city hall and defines the urban space along the adjacent, newly created Burstah ensemble. The striking facade is designed with an expansive, projecting bay, which gives the office building a visage recogniziable from afar. At the same time, the building blends into the existing street scene, thanks to bands of light-colored limestone that replicate the material and lines of the neighboring buildings. The natural stone surfaces of the new construction alternate with almost story-height fenestration bands that are punctuated by slender ventilation windows. Above the ground floor are six standard stories and one recessed story. The standard stories project out from the ground floor by 3.2 × 10 meters. With the curvature of its facade, the new office building guides pedestrians and traffic approaching from the city hall square into Grosser Burstah street. Highlights include the representative foyer with an extensive, special plaster surface, and the recessed eighth story that serves as an inviting venue for meetings and receptions with a view of the old city center. The unique opportunity to construct a new building in Hamburg’s medieval center was more important to the clients than maximizing cost-effectiveness. The net floor space is about one third the size of the circulation and ancillary areas.